The X Factor will generate more than £100m in advertising revenue for ITV this year, with Simon Cowell likely to earn around £7m, according to new estimates.

This year's sixth series of the ITV1 talent show is the most popular to date, peaking with a record 16 million viewers last month. The final later this month alone is expected to generate £20m in revenue, with advertising breaks selling at a special top rate of up to £250,000, according to Guardian columnist Maggie Brown.

"The X Factor, including the website and ITV2's Xtra Factor, is expected to generate a total of £102.5m for ITV in advertising alone," wrote Brown in the new issue of Radio Times, published today.

"Cowell is said to be paid an appearance fee of around £125,000 per hour, ITV's top rate. This year's series was expanded, at his insistence, from just a Saturday-night programme by adding a Sunday results show. So ITV1 is screening over 40 hours in total, which should earn Cowell £5m (at production company Talkback Thames, sources will only say his appearance fee is millions).

"Then, as the major owner of the format, Cowell reaps a format fee, and is paid, through his company Syco, a share of the production fee. He gets £2m or so from the two combined. 'Not bad for weekend work, eh?' says an envious producer."

The presenter, producer and music mogul is planning to take The X Factor to Las Vegas as part of a joint global internet venture with his business partner Sir Philip Green, the retail tycoon, who negotiated his new US deal.

His new deal in the US, where he is lead judge on Fox's American Idol, is understood to be worth $125m (£75m) for the next two series, according to Green.

Cowell said the pair planned to stage two shows a week in Las Vegas, which fans could watch online on a pay-per-view basis.

Green told GQ: "We'll have a permanent place. The home of X Factor – live from Las Vegas. We'll have a store. And it'll be online. Vegas is tailor-made for this show. You get to the final 12, your dreams come true: you're going to sing in Vegas."

ITV has said hits on its The X Factor video site are up 220% this year. By mid-November there had been 31m views, compared with 17m last year.

Brown said that Peter Fincham, ITV's director of television, channels and content, was on the phone to Cowell "at least four times as week". She added that Cowell's control on the show, which his Syco TV co-produces with Talkback Thames, extended to the number of times the camera cuts to his face during a programme.

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